I don’t know too many people who would use the words exciting about a car like this 1968 Toyota Corona, but I would be excited to own it. It takes someone who isn’t afraid of driving something a little different to be excited about a ’68 Corona four-door sedan. The seller has it listed here on eBay in Springfield, Missouri and the current bid price is $4,200. They also have a $10,600 buy-it-now price listed.
There’s something about the third-generation Toyota Corona that gets to me. It’s so pragmatic with lots of headroom for those of us over six feet tall. It’s also a little on the frumpy side, not exactly being a sleek, stylish swooping design that makes you excited to just sit in your garage or driveway and look at it. That being said, there is something appealing about these cars but I’m guessing I’m in the minority here.
With a “Deluxe” badge on the C-pillars, you know this is quite a ride. The third-generation Coronas were fairly fancy for the time, coming out just before the 1964 Tokyo Olympics and lasting until 1970. It was the last Corona to have any real vintage character as far as I’m concerned. This car appears to be in good condition and they have provided sixteen photos but there are a lot of areas not shown.
One of the not-shown areas are the seats both front and back, we don’t really see them at all other than a tiny sliver in the composite photo above. The dash looks good and you can see the column-shifted transmission which would have been a two-speed Toyoglide automatic. The owner says that they’re selling due to the size of their garage and they’ve owned this Corona for the last three years.
The engine should be Toyota’s 3R inline-four, a 1.9L engine with around 90 hp. The seller says that it runs great and is used mainly for weekend drives. It can overheat sometimes but hopefully that’s an easy fix. Have any of you owned or driven a third-generation Corona?
I am quite amazed that after so many years of not seeing one of these Corona’s especially this nice several have made themselves known in the recent months. This was my parents first car right down to the color and the Toyoglide. Their car was bought from a traveling salesperson after the odometer rolled over. That car took us from PA to Texas in 69 and continued to serve the family well. I do remember as a kid the little Corona was not happy running 80 mph on loop 410. Even as a kid 6 years old I still remember asking mom to slow down because it sounded scary to me. I think theirs was a 65 or 66 though.
So since this is the 3rd variant of the Corona does this make it the Gamma edition?
An old friend, who was a somewhat accomplished musician/mechanic, had a car EXACTLY like this,( maybe a stick) and wrote a song about it titled,,,”I got the foreign car repair blues”,,The motor developed a ticking sound, he got estimates for everything from piston slap to bearings to valves. The car was already 10 years old, so he took the motor apart himself. New everything, got it all back together, still ticked. Turns out, it was a broken spring in the fuel pump,,,the song went nowhere, as well.
Even though these were just the best cars, I felt, and probably the only Asian car I’d want, just because it’s so basic, the public just wasn’t ready yet. I believe it was the Corolla in the early 70’s that changed everything for Toyota cars in the US. Great find, not sure about parts for a 50 year old Asian car these days.
I remember as a teenage kid noticing that these took their styling cues from the late 60’s Silver Shadow. I wanted to take one of those RR grilles made for a bug and graft it onto the hood of a ’68 Corona, making a mini Rolls. Guess I was a pretty weird kid!
I thought this was a relist of one from about a month ago, but that was a ’69.
Talk about a doppelganger.
In 1979 I bought a 1967 Carona 4 door just like this in the same color, except mine was a 3 speed standard shift on the column. I really loved that car as it was fun to drive and got great gas mileage. Traded it for a 1969 Dodge Polara because I was moving from Washington state to California and I needed the room.
Haha, I tried to forget about the Toyota Corona. I had a 67 back in the mid ’70s and it was the worst, most unreliable vehicle I have ever owned. It ended up in the junkyard and all the money that I paid for it was lost.
I just sold a two door 4 speed 57,000 miles on BAT for $10,500. Nice solid example with a questionable but reasonable paint
When Toyota released this model in Australia they sold extremely well because they were good value and extremely reliable, radio, heater, tinted windows, nice comfy seats and available in automatic
there’s a new car Toy makes. Identical to this if stretched. A limo of sorts, wanna say ‘Crown’ but that was a fancy model of this same yr or so. Altho new usa will not import. There’s 3 ‘take offs’ on 1 basic desigh. But U can name more – from other co.s?
My first new car was a ’70 Corona 4dr. It was about the same car as this ’67 shown. I had trouble right away with the engine; I think it was the valve system & warranty fixed some of that. The brakes were pretty inadequate at higher speeds, however it was mostly a pretty reliable fairly well-built little car. Gas mileage was nothing special in comparison with some of the newer more powerful cars.